[8.4.1] Section-8 Kaishaku: Counter to Lead Hand Punch

[Source:] AOKK Isshin-ryu Black-belt

[Rating:] AOKK Preferred Bunkai

Part-1 Attacker: Punches

Part-2 Defender: Rear-Hand Grab,

• Step to the side of the punch and grab the attacker’s wrist with your right arm and set into a horse stance or back stance.

Note: Slide your lead leg behind the attacker.

Theory: The best way to not get hit is to not be there. This same process is seen in upper-body exercise fourteen. It is called body evasion. This is why you step outside a frontal attack.

• Bring your elbow over the attacker’s arm and horizontally strike the chest, head, or solar plexus with the point of your elbow.
• Back knuckle strike the face and grab the hair on the back or top of his/her head.

Theory: This is not a two-step process. It happens at the same time. It must flow like water. The grab, trap, and elbow are one movement. Body evasion must be practiced in student-to-student ippon-kumite, so speed and timing can be developed.

• Sweep the attacker’s leg and throw him/her backwards to the ground. (Tani-otoshi)

Hidden Technique:

If you follow the attacker to the ground, place the trapped arm in an arm-bar and hyperextend the joint.

Theory: An attacker is not going to allow you to put him/her in a wrist or elbow lock. To land this technique you need to get the attacker to move. The easiest way to land a lock is when the attacker is withdrawing his/her hand. An attacker can be distracted from his/her counterattack by pulling his arm to your obi. Their first reaction is to pull backwards. During this struggle, they are open to a back fist, and they’re also open for a scooping or dumping throw. The back fist gets the attacker to focus on that technique. This is the loosening-up technique. The distraction is so your preferred technique can be delivered without interference. Master Harold Mitchum would call this a prefix to the techniques demonstrated in the kata.

[End Series]